While there are a good number of birds in this picture they still only represent a tiny fraction of the winter visitors to Islay. Barnacle Geese taking off at Gruinart after being spooked by something.
An October afternoon at Gruinart, not much had happened for quite a while. Small groups arrived and left, nothing too exciting. Suddenly every single Barnacle Goose flew up, something had spooked them and told them to all move on (unfortunately I couldn’t spot the reason). After a while the all settled again, but on Loch Gruinart (it was low tide), mostly out of sight from the hide.
Some of the early arrivals in October 2021, some Barnacle Geese landing at Gruinart after their arrival on Islay from Greenland.